European Parliament ‘fixes’ the refugee crisis

The European Parliament has come up with a plan to “fix” the refugee crisis, just in time for a crucial EU summit on migration this week.

The assembly’s civil liberties committee on Wednesday adopted by a large majority a non-binding report aimed at “tackling migration from all aspects.” The center-right European People’s Party group had high hopes for the initiative, declaring in a press release: “European Parliament fixes refugee crisis.”

The deal would require Turkey to take back migrants who reach the EU illegally in return for a €6 billion payment as well as a commitment to lift visa restrictions on Turks traveling to Europe and accelerate talks on Turkey’s EU accession.

Though migration issues have mainly been in the hands of EU governments, the European Parliament will play a role on future legislative changes, affecting for example the EU’s asylum policy.

The report, which was drafted on the initiative of the Parliament, is evidence of the assembly’s efforts to play an increasing political role on the EU scene. However, its claim to “fix” the refugee crisis attracted ridicule on Twitter, with some people calling it a “bad joke.”

“The severity of the situation is immense,” said one of the authors of the report, the EPP’s Roberta Metsola. “Last year 3,771 people drowned in our seas. This year already more than 450 people, including 77 children, have died. As politicians, we have a duty to ensure that these are not just nameless statistics. These are real people, with real lives.”

The draft report calls for revising the Dublin regulation, which requires that refugees are dealt with in the country where they first arrive, by establishing a central system for collecting and allocating asylum applications. The aim, according to the report, is “viewing each asylum seeker as someone seeking asylum in the Union as a whole and not in an individual member state.”

The text also urges member states to “fulfill their obligations” on relocation measures, establish a “binding and mandatory legislative approach” on resettlement and new EU-wide “readmission” agreements which they say should take precedence over bilateral ones between EU and non-EU countries.

The European Parliament “believes that the return of migrants should only be carried out safely, in full compliance with the fundamental and procedural rights of the migrants in question and where the country to which they are being returned is safe for them,” the report said.

The report also stated that an EU-Turkey deal would work only if all parties to fulfil their commitments “to prevent irregular migration flows from its territory to the EU,” Metsola said.

The report will be voted on in the Parliament’s next plenary session on April 9 in Strasbourg.

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Kazin

F*** you dear EU MPs but we don’t want to end a minority in our own countries, if the gouvernements approve this things then I will vote for Marine le Pen.

Posted on 3/16/16 | 10:37 PM CET

Theodore

European Parliement . A bunch of second rate has been politicians elected by 20 percent of European voters ( at best ) living on fat allowances and gastronomic meals in Brussels and Strasbourg and doing nothing of any consequence or use except empty talk , and chaired by that caricature of a German the socialist commissar Schultz . You must be joking .

Posted on 3/17/16 | 3:12 AM CET

Co-Report means Co-rapporteurs

Is politico even aware that there where two rapporteurs? Dublin rehaul, relocation measures and the centralized system where all coined by Kyenge, not Metsola. Everyone and anyone in the parliament knows that.

Aside from that, it’s quite hilarious to note that Politico has chosen to report the hilarity of the EPP’s press release but has also chosen only to pick up upon comments by the EPP’s co-rapporteur.

But that’s nothing more than expected from Politico nowadays. Yawn.

Posted on 3/17/16 | 8:24 AM CET

Dan Vachon

Our leaders are erratic, conflicted, unfocused, disorganized. The divide us in an attempt to gain power. As a result we lack harmony, cohesion, and therefore greatness”. (I stole that from Star Trek 7 of 9). The cure for this problem escapes me and will undoubtedly be our downfall.

Posted on 3/17/16 | 5:04 PM CET

rottenrollin

So who’s writing the signs for all these “men only” refugees? WHERE ARE THE WOMEN & CHILDREN?

I like the guy whose sign reads “Am I Not Human”……..he left room beneath to add in “WHERE ARE YOUR WOMEN????